South Carolina Artists Have Works on View in Senegal Africa as Part of US Department of State’s office of ART in Embassies Program

Pictured here is In Formation, a 40″ x 30″ painting by Leslie Pratt-Thomas which is on loan for the next two years to the US Embassy in Senegal, Africa. Several other Charleston, SC, painters have works featured in this show including: Lese Corrigan, John Doyle, West Fraser, Mark Horton, Jennifer Rogers, Shannon Smith and Mickey Williams. A longleaf pine needle basket by Columbia, SC, artist, Clay Burnette is also in the exhibit, as well as other works by regional artists.

Established in 1963, the US Department of State’s office of ART in Embassies (AIE) plays a vital role in our nation’s public diplomacy through a culturally expansive mission, creating temporary exhibitions and permanent collections, artist and cultural exchange programming, and publications. The Museum of Modern Art first envisioned this global visual arts program a decade earlier. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy formalized it, naming the program’s first director. Now with over 200 venues, AIE curates temporary and permanent exhibitions for the representational spaces of all US chanceries, annexes, consulates, and embassy residences worldwide, commissioning and selecting contemporary art from the US and the host countries. These exhibitions provide international audiences with a sense of the quality, scope, and diversity of both countries’ art and culture, establishing AIE’s presence in more countries than any other US foundation or arts organization.

AIE’s exhibitions allow foreign citizens, many of whom might never travel to the United States, to personally experience the depth and breadth of our artistic heritage and values, making what has been called a: ”footprint that can be left where people have no opportunity to see American art.”